Reusing Tea Tins for the Holidays

Fans of Harney teas universally share at least one thing in common: what to do with all those empty tea tins! Many of them are just too pretty to throw away, and it seems a shame to toss something that can have a second life. (Taking a moment here to remind you that you can always order tea in our bulk bags and refill those tins; that’s one way to reuse them! Now, back to our regularly scheduled topic.)

We’ve put together some ideas for how you can put those tins to use this holiday season, turning them into unique gifts that will impress the recipient with your createavity and thoughtfulness.

1. Candies/Cookies

Tins make great containers for packaging up your home baked cookies or homemade candies for gift giving. Our HRP tins are especially great for this as they are larger and therefore allow more room for more goodies!

Consider matching the tin with a specific type of related goodie for extra coolness. For instance, use our Gingerbread Festival tin to package gingersnaps. Load up a Chocolate Mint tin with fudge, turtles, hot chocolate mix or anything chocolatey. Surprise and delight someone with a Chai tin with Spiced Sugar Cookies or a Paris tin with Paris Tea Infused Shortbread Cookies from this Holiday Baking With Tea blog. Take a look at your empty tins and start baking!

2. Lanterns

Our tins are perfect for creating beautiful holiday lanterns. See our DIY Fall Tin Lanterns blog for how-to instructions, then create a holiday version with winter/holiday stencils. You can use any tin you have lying around, of course, but using some of our more festive holiday tins like White Christmas, Celebration, Holiday, Holiday Heritage or Williamsburg Ginger Cake will make these lanterns have twice the feels of the season! Place a tealight (of course!) or votive candle in them and place on a mantle or tabletop to add a little twinkle to any room.

3. Candles

Candles are easy to make and make wonderful gifts. You can make them unscented or add a scent that matches your tin, like cinnamon in Hot Cinnamon Spice or vanilla in Vanilla Comoro. Here’s what you need:

Materials:

• Wax (generally use about 2x the amount of the size of your container so when it melts down you’ll have enough)
• Wick
• Clean, empty tea tin
• Fragrance (optional)
• Color (optional)
• Skewers or popsicle sticks

Instructions:

1. Put the wick in the empty tin, adhering it with hot glue.
2. Place a pot on a heat source, like the stove or a hot plate, over medium-low heat. Add the wax and let it melt. Slowly stir in any desired fragrance or color to the melted wax.
3. Slowly pour the hot wax into the tea tin. Lay a skewer or popsicle stick across the top of the tin and wrap the wick around it to keep the wick standing and centered while the wax hardens.
4. Let the wax cool completely and then trim the wick down to about ½ inch above the wax.

4. Vases

Flowers brighten up anyone’s day. Repurposing a tea tin as a vase is a quick, easy and creative way to display fresh cut flowers. We especially love using our Met Collection tins as vases. Their artful designs lend themselves beautifully to this use and make a lovely hostess gift. Just fill with water and add flowers…again and again and again. While any tin will work, we also think Garden Party, Jane’s Garden and Summer Afternoon are perfect for filling with flowers. Use red and green tins for Christmas or blue tins for Hanukkah filled with flowers for beautiful holiday decor.